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Topic: History

The Alma Mater statue beloved by University of Illinois students and graduates has been back on campus almost two months but the university plans to officially mark her return and her 85th birthday with a party Friday morning.

This month marks the 60th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education. The landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawed “separate but equal” in public schools. Thurgood Marshall, who would later be appointed to the high court, argued the case. Two years after the ruling -- in 1956 -- Marshall visited the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to talk about his work to end segregation and the challenges ahead. Marshall said despite efforts by detractors of integration, black and white students were meant to go to school under one roof.

When South Africa buried apartheid with its first all-race election in 1994, the Rev. Desmond Tutu danced with joy as he cast his ballot. He called it "a religious experience, a transfiguration experience, a mountaintop experience."